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Encapsulate this

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 9–11 (2014)Cite this article

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Insulin-producing islet cells could hold the secret to curing type 1 diabetes—if only scientists could figure out a way to encapsulate and transplant them into the body. But first, the right biocompatible material must be found to hold these precious cells. A team of bioengineers thinks it has discovered one. Elie Dolgin reports.

The capsules have nothing to do with fish, but the shell is made of a material derived from the ocean. Measuring just half a millimeter in diameter, they are made of an ultrapure preparation of alginate, a gelatinous seaweed extract used widely in the food and medical industries. The idea is to embed inside each of these capsules a handful of islet cells, which in turn would secrete insulin into the body. For the estimated 30 million people worldwide living with type 1 diabetes (T1D), the immune system has unwittingly attacked and destroyed the islet cells in the pancreas that normally produce insulin. These individuals can receive insulin injections, but the jabs don't do such a great job of keeping glucose levels in check at all times, and remembering to take the shots while continuously monitoring blood sugar levels can be onerous.

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  1. Elie Dolgin is senior news editor at Nature Medicine in Cambridge, Massachusetts.,

    Elie Dolgin

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Dolgin, E. Encapsulate this. Nat Med 20, 9–11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0114-9

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